2006-07-09

Svithing religious complexity

Religion is a funny thing, don't you think? All this "faith" stuff, for instance. What's that all about? Live my life according to rules whose foundations are invisible? Talk about whack!

But lots of people do it, myself included, so there must be something to it.

So we make a decision based on criteria that are personal to the point of being inexplicable and then we live our lives, having made that decision and sticking to it.

Without going into the inexplicable and personal reasons, I have chosen to be a Mormon. What it means to be a Mormon is what I am thinking about today, in large part due to Master Fob's excellent svithe last week. Excellent except for dredging up that old raisin thing again (the jerk). Anyway, it was on obedience and you should read it.

Master Fob's argument is a strong one: religious followers should filter the teachings of their religious leaders through their own faith and prayer-relationships with Almighty. Brigham Young would agree with him. And so do I. But while agreeing with him, I reserve the right to disagree with him.

Here's the thing: I (for instance) have chosen to be a Mormon and among the tenets that acceptance implies is this: I accept that God has chosen folk to be his spokesfolk upon this earth and to give me information I need to be a better Christian. Now, I feel strongly that, yes, I should pray and discover for myself whether this doctrine of leadership be true, but once I've accepted it, the list of things I need to pray about has been vastly simplified. Since God and I have already sat down and agreed that Mr Hinckley is God's prophet, when Mr Hinckley speaks in his official capacity, I don't see an intellectual crisis in accepting what he says as the mind and will of the Lord without rehashing the prophet policy with deity.

Now, I suppose if he says something I have a hard time accepting I will of course have to return to my knees for a redo, because I don't believe in blinding myself in the name of faith. Faith isn't blindness; faith is seeing: If I have already been given faith, I will be able to push through the snowstorms of uncertainty--even if I only have enough understanding for faith to show me one footstep at a time. I believe that when I don't understand the specifics, my faith in larger principles will see me through. And modern revelation is a most vital principle.

Anyway, on to these coffee pictures.

I'm not interested in getting into the Word of Wisdom today, but I do think these pictures illustrate the nature of confusion and disagreement and getting along.

This Marxism coffee for instance. It's hard, but let's disregard how Marx would feel about being named after God's favored coffee and look instead at the type.

First: "Coffee 15%"

(Unfortunately, I can't type in Korean, so I'll just translate the part in the green ribbon.)

See. This is religious tolerance at it's finest. We may take away 85%, but if we always give back 200%, we'll all be okay.

The trick is to always give others more tolerance than you need in return.

Even when it comes to raisins, jerk.

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Note:Lady Steed and I are moving this week to El Cerrito, California. Because of this, we will be short one internet connection for a period of time of an as-of-yet undetermined length. Thus, as I will have no internet connection, I will have nothing to svithe. Thus, svithing will be put on hold for some time.

6 comments:

Good svithe. I have to say Master Fob's svithe made me think about obedience and faith quite a bit this week too. My husband and I had a good talk on our take on the subject. It was good to hear what you had to say too.

GOOD LUCK ON YOUR MOVE!! I hope you get an internet connection soon. (Or at least go and visit the Bras(s) clan often enough to post occasionally.)

Forget the raisins, you say. Right. You're not the one still pooping raisins, five months later.

I hereby acknowledge your right to disagree with me and reserve mine to disagree with you. It's not even so much that I disagree with you as I just don't feel, personally, that that conclusion is what God is telling me to come to.